Pentax K10D, SMC PENTAX-DA f/3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL @ 43mm, ISO 400, f/8, 1/60 sec, +0.7 EV, IS on

I love rusty old mechanical stuff. This bike has been slowly rotting on the bike rack outside my building all year. The afternoon light was really nice when I took this shot. I shot it at f/8 because I knew that at this close distance it would give me a bit more depth of field and would really make the detail pop. I processed my RAW file in Adobe Lightroom using the Direct Positive preset. The only other thing I did was bump up the Recovery a bit to bring a little more detail back into the highlight areas.

I’ve driven past this place a number of times and often thought I should come back with my camera. This morning it was foggy and rainy and I thought “Ah ha! Perfect conditions for the trailer park!” ;-)

The picture above was heavily processed in grayscale mode in Lightroom. I tweaked just about every slider to get this image. I was going for maximum texture, grime and dynamic range. Here’s the original color version with only minor adjustments applied:

All these images were shot had-held with my Pentax K10D and kit lens at ISO 400 at between 1/13 second to 1/60 second with the IS on. I stopped the lens down to f/5.6-f/8 when I could for optimum sharpness. Here’s a close up of the interior of the trailer above. I did not venture inside as the floor was rotten to the point I was afraid of falling through.

Here’s a wide shot of one of the trailers. The aluminum exterior skin had long been stripped and sold as scrap (I assume):

A detail of the trailer in the previous shot:

These trailers were surprisingly full of left behind personal possessions: